Chocolate and peanut butter are a natural flavor combination, and I make a lot of things that incorporate both. Somehow, in some inexplicable, egregious oversight I have never thought of adding chocolate to my peanut butter cookies. Um, hello, where exactly have I been? Such a simple idea. I was watching little mini episodes of Martha Stewart on the in demand portion of my cable last night, and saw her making peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies and nearly fell out of my chair. It is a mystery to me why no one out there in the world has come up to me on the street and slapped me across the face for not making these delicious cookies?! Luckily, because I have a strong belief that fortune favors the prepared, I already had some homemade peanut butter cookie dough in my freezer, so I immediately pulled it out to defrost over night in the fridge knowing that today I would finally resolve this cookie travesty. I always have numerous bags of Nestles chocolate chunk morsels in my pantry, because I like that they, like chocolate chips, retain their shape during baking, and don’t simply melt into the dough. I think that they just make for a more beautiful presentation (and, let’s face it, they are much less expensive than the hand chopped Valrhona chocolate that Martha chose to use). And being a foodie, but not a food snob, I find them to be perfectly delicious. I started with my peanut butter cookie dough and gently kneaded in about a cup and a half of chocolate chunks. The delicious, chewy, nutty cookies, are only enhanced by the sweet, rich, creamy chocolate. In fact, as I type this, I am imagining these cookies used to sandwich together a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. I mean, hot damn! It’s like a whole new world has been opened up before my eyes. It is amazing to me what that one extra, special ingredient can do in a recipe. It can so easily turn the whole thing on its head and ignite the senses. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a plate of cookies calling out my name. Happy Wednesday everyone!

To date I haven’t done much shipping of my baked good items. But I certainly wouldn’t be apposed to doing so, if we could find something that would ship well and still look and taste great upon arrival.

Your cookies are calling my name. We eat a lot of peanut butter on whole wheat English muffins for a quick healthy breakfast. I’ve been baking a lot of cupcakes lately, but these will be the next cookies that I bake! Yum!

Yeah, peanut butter is so delicious and versatile. From satays, to sauces, to desserts. And paired with chocolate it is just heavenly! These cookies have a classic flavor. Just like my grandmother used to make.

Wow. Thanks. That is so flattering, because your photos are always so tantalizing. I do use a canon PC1206 point and shoot camera. For post editing, I use a free version of Paint.net or picasa. But of course, I try to do as little as possible, really just compensating for what my camera is incapable of capturing. (which isn’t to say that sometimes I don’t accidentally go overboard… lol). But I am entirely self taught, and am really just making it all up as I go along.

I stumbled across your site googling for a make ahead chocolate soufflé
As a huge fan of “test kitchen” your reference brought me here. What a stroke of luck…I love your recipes and comments. You will be one of my “go to” sites when I am looking to be inspired. Thanks!